Sex and gender are often confused while they mean different things. Sex is a set of biological and physiological characteristics. Gender refers to “an internal sense of being male, female or something else” (“Transgender Today” par. 1). In other words, gender is composed of behavior, social roles, expectations, and actions of the person. Some popular stereotypes of being masculine or feminine impact the person’s perception by others.
For example, a typically feminine image involves social and communication skills, emotional support, and need in protection while a typical masculine role assumes independence, dominance, and resoluteness. It is considered that feminine representatives wear dresses and skirts while masculine ones should be dressed in a formal suit. At that, dress practices can help people to express their gender that sometimes can cause societal rejection.
To understand the issue of gender, it is necessary to identify the term gender identity. This term can be referred to as an experience of the person of his or her gender. As a result, one can note the establishment of gender continuum that includes the extension of the gender spectrum outside the traditional binary system. For example, it is possible to point out transvestites wearing sex-opposite clothes or transsexuals who underwent sex-change surgery.
At this point, it is important to note the phenomenon of transgender when the gender of the person does not coincide with their sex listed on a birth certificate. Many Americans are against transgender making them the nation’s most marginalized citizens (“Transgender Today” par. 9). Although there is a tendency towards the strengthening of rights of transgender people, they have to encounter resistance from the government that is expressed in inappropriate health care or even refusal to provide it or the ban of the Pentagon to join military service.
I can state that my gender identity is also formed under the influence of a set of social norms, events, and tendencies. Considering gender identity in a way suggested by Lorber who states that it is “a social institution”, I understand the strong connection between my own gender identity and social standards (“Night to his day: The social construction of gender” 16). Gender construction begins with the sex identified by the birth certificate and can be developed throughout life.
My initial gender identity was established in my childhood within the framework of family values and upbringing attitudes. Lorber believes that religion, language, and culture set certain standards that are based on gender differences (“A World Without Gender: Making the Revolution” 15).
Thus, gender is determined not only by private processes such as interpersonal communication and interaction in the family but also by social relationships and is the cause of social stratification which causes the hierarchy in society. Both cultural and social factors affected my gender identity. For example, it is common and widespread to dress unisex clothing that blurs boundaries between females and males. As a result, I also tend to wear unisex clothing likewise the majority of my peers.
In my opinion, wearing men’s or women’s clothes would not look inappropriate in the case of the absence of stereotypes about how women and men are to be dressed. Under inappropriate clothing, society still can distinguish the traits belonging to definite gender categories. Lorber notes that “their dress, appearance, and mannerisms fall within the range of what is expected from members of the opposite gender” (“Night to his day: The social construction of gender” 14). Indeed, a transvestite is just a woman dressed as a man or just a man dressed as a woman.
Works Cited
Lorber, Judith. “Night to his day: The social construction of gender.” Paradoxes of Gender. Ed. Judith Lorber. New Haven: Yale. 1994. 13-36. Print.
Lorber, Judith. “A World Without Gender: Making the Revolution.” Sex, Gender, and Sexuality: The New Basic. Ed. Abby L. Ferber, Kimberly Holcomb, and Tre Wentling. Oxford University Press: New York. 2012. 537-544. Print.
“Transgender Today.” The New York Times. The New York Times. 2015. Web.